1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information kiosk terminal system for providing various information and services.
2. Description of the Related Art
Convenience stores and hospitals, etc., are often equipped with an unmanned information kiosk terminal system for providing various information and services using information stored on a card or the like. As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-66252, an information kiosk terminal system includes a monitor for displaying information and further includes, at a transaction unit, various input/output interfaces such as a printer for printing tickets and receipt slips and a magnetic card reader for reading information stored on a magnetic card.
Recently, there is a need for an information kiosk terminal system having the capability of inputting/outputting information using various media, such as a bar code or a noncontact IC card. However, to meet the requirement for processing of information from various media, the information kiosk terminal system is required to be equipped with various input/output interfaces, which in turn requires units for providing various input/output interfaces to be compactly arranged inside of the transaction unit, which often makes it difficult to maintain the transaction unit. Further, when wheelchair users use the information kiosk terminal system, wheelchairs can be obstacles to approaching various input/output interfaces and therefore some measure has to be taken to solve this problem.